These past nine months have taught us all more than we ever needed to know about Donald Trump, and one thing that is clear as crystal is that Trump likes to be liked and is interested in people who are interested in him -- particularly if they're famous. One of those people happens to be former Texas Tech head coach and current Washington State head coach Mike Leach.
As the now-famous story goes, Leach read Trump's book How to Get Rich and was intrigued by the parallels he could draw with his own day job. “He described how he would buy these properties that were literally part of the New York skyline, first have a vision of what it was and what it could be, then make it that way," Leach told the Seattle Times. "They literally did one building after the next. At any rate, as you walk down the street in New York, you see all these buildings that he patched and got them on their feet.
“He’d talked about his approach going into it, some of the pitfalls along the way, because when you do a building like that, it’s a total team effort. It’s not just you, it’s the bank, the contractors and the people who work with you to maximize the property. I really thought that was impressive.”
So Leach, in New York with his daughters, looked Trump up. He didn't speak to the future Republican nominee for President of the United States on that day, but the two spoke eventually, striking up another of Trump's two-man mutual admiration societies.
And that, in a roundabout way, led to this.
Trump was clearly a regular of mid-2000's Texas Tech football broadcasts, as evidenced by his mispronunciation of the Red Raiders quarterback Graham Harrell's name.
Nearly nine years later, Trump and Leach remain friends -- Trump even chastitsed then-Miami president Donna Shalala for not hiring Al Golden over an out-of-work Leach in 2010.The New York tycoon can likely count on one vote from Pullman, Wash., heading his way this November.
"I think we value people's feelings over solutions to problems. I think for good or bad, I think Donald Trump ... the thing that he brings to the election that's most important of all is the fact that he is not politically correct," Leach said in October. "He's against political correctness. I think that's the important issue. I think it's the most important issue because problems can't be solved unless we develop a mentality and an environment where people speak honestly among themselves."
Here he was again in April, again to the Seattle Times: “Trump is legitimate because he’s an independent thinker and problem solver. … Nobody is going to agree 100 percent with anybody, but in the end, on any issue, there’s a lot of moving parts and problems. So the question really is, ‘Who’s the best at solving problems?’. All those who’ve been in Washington for decades have proven they can’t solve problems. One of the reasons they’ve proven they can’t solve problems is that they can’t think independently.
“I’m not saying I’m a Bernie (Sanders) guy, but Donald and him are the only ones that think independently. They might think wrong, but certainly, by the standards at present, they’re more independent than the others. … With Bernie, it’s like, he’s been here forever (and thinks) ‘OK I’m old enough to do it and I don’t care what they think now.’ And with Donald, it’s ‘I’ve got enough money that they don’t own me and I don’t care.’”
(HT @smartfootball)